Attaching TIFF Files to Legacy

Post by **Anne H** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:57 am

Can someone who uses Legacy help me please?

I know it should be possible to attach a tiff file to Legacy...it says so in my book but I only seem to be able to attach jpg files? What am I doing wrong?

Any help most appreciated.

Regards,
Anne H

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:43 am

Hi Anne
In Legacy's help files it says:

Troubleshooting Picture Problems in Legacy

Pictures Won't Display
Legacy can't open the following format:
TIFF (*.TIF - Tagged Image File Format)
Legacy cannot display TIFFs with LZW compression.

Please use an image editing program to save your pictures in a different format and reload them. (See Image Format Basics for further details.)

Even though it says elsewhere, in Image Format Basics in Legacy help "The initial release of Legacy supports some 25 picture formats: BMP, CALS, DCX, EPS, GEM IMG, HALO CUT, ICO, IFF, IOCA, JPEG, LASERVIEW, MACPAINT, MSP, PCX, PNG, PSG, PCD, PICT, XPM-X, RAST, TARGA, TIFF, WMF, WPG and XBM-X."

So it looks like a TIF is OK as long as it used another form of compression other than LZW, so if yours do not display, the compression used was LZW.

All my Tiffs do not display in Legacy - I usually create a second version of each TIFF as a Jpg just so that I can display it in Legacy.

Best wishes
Lesley

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:52 pm

Just for the record SP TIFFs are “CCITT group 4 fax encoding” and that’s a different compression type to LZW.

It’s a wonder they haven’t included GIFs in that lot as it’s a very handy and lossless format where there’s a limited range of colours and results in almost as small a file size as the group 4 TIFFs. The conversion of a group 4 to a JPG usually ends up with a massive increase in file size and potential for lossiness, although sometimes that doesn't matter much.

You can convert the problem LZW TIFF to other TIFF versions in Irfanview. Just open the image there and “save as” on the file menu. Select TIFF as the type and you’ll see the options on the right. The “save as” (give it a name different to the original) will ensure that you still have the original in case the new TIFF is a bit of a disappointment.

Alan

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:29 pm

Hi Alan

It’s a wonder they haven’t included GIFs in that lot as it’s a very handy and lossless format where there’s a limited range of colours and results in almost as small a file size as the group 4 TIFFs.

I didn't bother mentioning that bit, but...
"GIF is not supported because of licensing issues but can be purchased separately for $5.00"

Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **Anne H** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:51 pm

Lesley wrote:

All my Tiffs do not display in Legacy - I usually create a second version of each TIFF as a Jpg just so that I can display it in Legacy.

Many thanks Lesley...I thought I was just being a bit dense and not doing something right. Since I have the latest book (Legacy 7.0), I didn't even think to look at the help file (all those different picture formats go over my head

)

Alan...thanks for your input also. One of these days (when my head isn't spinning from learning all this new stuff on Legacy and now Photoshop) I'm going to download that Irfanview you often make reference to...it sounds good.

Regards,
Anne H

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:13 am

Thanks Lesley, I can’t imagine many people taking up that offer. If the price had been more reasonable, say 20 cents, Legacy probably would have just included it in the price of the program and the licence holder probably would have made a fortune.

And Anne, your Photoshop program should be able to handle the TIFF thing. Irfanview can be great just as a viewer or for things like processing or renaming batches of image files where sometimes the procedures with more complex programs can be difficult to follow. It also comes in handy when you sometimes get a file that nothing will open and when you throw it at Irfanview it tells you it’s a xyz or whatever file with the wrong extension and fixes it.

All the best,
Alan